1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structured data storage device and a structured data storage method, which realize a high-speed search using index information for databases of structured data represented by XML (extensible Markup Language), and which permit viewing and editing of structured data provided as text files.
2. Description of the Related Art
Structured data according to the XML format can be cited as a data format with high versatility and extensibility. In a variety of fields, data is managed as structured data according to the XML format. XML, which is one type of markup languages that provide documents with tags, can express data in a structured manner and is highly recognizable. On the other hand, the method of storing data must be elaborated for a high-speed data search.
A conventional storage method of XML data is disclosed in the bulletin of Japanese Patent No. 3560043. According to the method, XML data is stored in a tabular table. Specifically, one table is created for each of elements based on the schema information of the XML data, and then the content and attribute of the element are stored into the created table, as well as the order of appearance and parent-child relationship of the element.
The storage method can execute high-speed search by storing data in a tabular table while preserving the XML structure. Further, since the storage method creates tables based on the schema information, it can store XML data having a free structure without losing the extensibility of XML. However, since a dedicated device or program is necessary for use in the search, its high versatility is sacrificed. Further, the storage method does not provide partial updating of the data.